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​Jeff Kagan: Leaders in FinTech, Mobile Pay, Digital Payment

Digital payments, FinTech and Mobile Pay are the future and there are an increasing number of competitors in this space. Large and small companies, new and old, the payment space is changing and rapidly expanding. Let’s take a look at the sector leaders and what they bring to the changing marketplace.

PayPal (PYPL) recently had what may be their best quarter ever, and that is the direction I see this company heading in for the holiday shopping season and going forward. In this space, they continue to show strong growth.

PayPal CFO John Rainey on FinTech Leadership

PayPal CFO John Rainey told CNBC in an October interview, the e-commerce marketplace today is roughly 10 percent of the $25 trillion global retail market. He also says this sector is growing at double digit rates. With all that, he also says PayPal continues to grow in excess of that rate. That sounds like a very strong, rapidly growing and quickly changing space.

With all the new competition, he said PayPal has been growing in the 25 to 30% range by focusing on digital payments. Rainey says PayPal is looking for ways to give its consumers more choices.

It looks like wireless innovation in the digital payment space is fueling this growth wave for PayPal and for others in the space. This is a very exciting time as the entire space continues to grow and to change.

I attended the Money 20/20 conference in Las Vegas a few weeks ago and talked with many different players in this rapidly evolving space. PayPal was one of them. OmnyPay was another. There were many others as well. Large and small. New and old. US based and international based. This is a very healthy and rapidly growing space.

This is exciting to see wave after wave of new thinking and new ideas and the changing digital and mobile payment space.

OmnyPay Helps Kohl’s with App and Mobile Pay at Money 20/20

OmnyPay is a very interesting and rapidly growing company. They are only four years old, but they are showing strong growth in the digital payment space and transforming other industries as well.

The CEO of Kohl’s (KSS) gave the keynote and discussed the changes they were making to their app and mobile pay initiatives and the success they were seeing. The technology they used comes from OmnyPay, which helps companies win in the mobile pay and app space.

OmnyPay says the top three players in this space are Walmart Pay, CVS Pay and OmnyPay. That may be a surprise to hear, but that’s what I’ve been saying all along. Newer and smaller players will be some of the real winners as they transform this industry in this a new and rapidly growing space.

They help modernize and vastly improve the customer experience using these apps, which is just what every retailer wants. The good news is the digital payment space is still in the first inning of what will be a transformational game. We don’t yet know who the leaders of the space will be five years from today. However, we can make some judgments based on leadership today.

Who is Brand Leader in Mobile Pay and FinTech Like Kleenex is in Tissues?

With all this said, who are the brand leaders of this new space? Which one company is the Kleenex of the tissue space? For that matter, who are the several leaders in this space? That’s an interesting question. With all the activity in this new space, I don’t think there is any company who has a lock on this honor. Not yet anyway.

That’s the huge opportunity and challenge every player faces. And there are many players in this space. Companies that may be the next Kleenex. Companies like PayPay and OmnyPay are only two of them. There are others. Companies like Apple Pay (AAPL), Android Pay, Samsung Pay, Square and many others including banks, major retail stores like Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT), Home Depot (HD) and many others. They all want to be brand leaders.

Many businesses use standard services like PayPal, Apple Pay, Android Pay and others. Many others like Walmart don’t. They use their own app. While this gives them control, but also makes it much more complicated for the user. This makes it more difficult for them to be brand leaders like Kleenex.

How May Credit Cards Do You Carry?

Here’s a question to think about: How many credit cards to you carry? Why? Is it that too many cards make your wallet too thick? Is it that you have rewards from different cards for different purchases? There are all sorts of reasons, and many of them also apply to the digital world. Users don’t like to think about which app gives them which benefits for which purchase? They just want to pay.

In these cases, the user chooses the app they like best. Just because the user has a favorite app doesn’t mean everything is automatic after that. They may have multiple credit cards stored in each payment app, so they still have a decision to make when at the cash register.

Who Will Lead Mobile Pay and Digital Pay Going Forward?

The mobile payment space is rapidly growing and changing the way we do business. Who the leaders are will also grow and change several times in coming years. But one thing I find very interesting is that there is no brand name leadership in this space yet.

This is the opportunity every player should be focused on. Fortunately, this space can have multiple leaders. This is not just on big pie. This pie has many slices. So, different companies can lead different sectors.

With that said, every player in this space should see this as the golden ring and try whatever they can to grab it. After all, with all the amazing growth of the space and the players, wouldn’t it be great if your brand name could be the brand name in the space.

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